Title: 'That's Poker' (part 1)
 
A 'bad beat' - 'lucky' hand that the participants aren't likely to forget.
 
Venue: World Series of Poker 2005 - Circuit Event # 11 - No limit hold'em
Players Remaining in Tournament: 5 (129 have been eliminated)
Players at table: Five - Joseph Hachem, J.C. Tran, 'Tham' aka Kido Pham, Lee Watkinson and Scotty Nguyen
Blinds: unknown
Sundry: Hachem is the chip leader - $354,000 followed by Pham ($341,500) and Tran ($333,000). Prize Pool - $1,259,600. First place prize money - $ 453,456. Played November 22nd 2005 - Bally's casino.
 

    

 
Action folds around to J.C. Tran with:

 

J.C. Tran raises to $18,000
Kido Pham is seated to his left with:

 

Kido Pham raises to $50,000:
Joe Hachem has:

Joe Hachem makes it $150,000:
 

 
J.C. Tran folds.
Kido Pham raises to ALL-IN.
Joe Hachem Calls.
 
Flop comes:

 

 

 
On the Turn:

 
On the River:

 

 

POT: Over $700,000
 
Kido Pham was heard to remark "I play to win". "You have to draw out to win the championship" and "I felt it".
Joe Hachem said nothing.
 
Comments: Not much to say here. Joe made all the right moves but sometimes you can't beat plain ol' luck. Pham's ALL-IN deserves some defense - he was going for the win and probably thought he could bluff Hachem with his, almost equal, stack. With anything less than Q's Hachem might have thought twice. Kido ended up winning this tournament with his ultra-aggressive style - the poker Gods seem to have it in his destiny as he put a similarly tough beat on a highly distraught Ricky "Mr. River" Zillem earlier in the tournament - eclipsing his opponents paired Queens ALL-IN bet with a 6-high flush draw that came to fruition. Zilem was said to remark to Pham immediately after "That's a lack of respect, man", but Kido had the correct pot odds.

Q+A:

Should Kido have raised ALL-IN?

ANSWER: Knowing the result - absolutely. But in all practicality it was a blunder. He was going for a bluff with decent starters - J-10 are good cards. He got called... and got lucky - miraculously lucky. If he had known what Joe had, he definitely wouldn't have raised (or even been in the pot). He was gambling and Hachem would have probably folded with anything but a handful of starters. Kido had poor timing but 'that's poker'.